1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a method and system for multiple login contexts. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for enabling concurrent security connections in a heterogeneous network.
2. Description of the Related Art
A user may access different networks to retrieve and send information based upon the task at hand. The user may access different networks within his company, especially if the company is large and covers multiple geographic areas. Even though the company may strive to have similar networks throughout the individual business areas, this may be difficult to accomplish in cases where a company purchases another company and attempts to integrate the two networks. The user may also access networks external to his company. For example, an engineer may be designing a system using a vendor's device. The engineer may access proprietary technical notes that are located on the vendor's network through a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or other secure network.
A network may have varying degrees of logon complexity based on the security needs of the network. For example, a network that includes highly sensitive information may have a very complex login requirement which may include the use of biometric inputs and the use of dynamic encryption cards that synchronize random numbers with login servers at various points in time. A second network in the same company that does not include sensitive information may have a very simple login requirement, such as simply entering a user id and password. Each network may also have specific login security requirements. For example, one network may have a password requirement length of five alpha characters and another network may have a password requirement of eight characters in which two of them are numeric.
Networks may require a dynamic login method for user's logging in from a remote location in order to have an additional level of security. For example, the network may require that the user enter a number based on a pseudo-random code that changes numbers at specific time intervals, such as with an ACE™ card. The probability that a user encounters a unique logon requirement increases when the user accesses external networks. As mentioned before, some networks may require the contemporaneous entry of biometric information, such as the user's fingerprint or retina scan.
A challenge found in the current art is securely managing the different user id's and different passwords a user configures to access multiple networks. The user may not want to write down his user id's and passwords for security risk reasons. Logging on to many different networks during the workday is also time consuming and cumbersome. While a user may store login information in a secure place, such as an encrypted file on the user's computer, the repeated retrieval and maintenance of the information is troublesome.
However, login security requirements are essential and may not be avoided. Login security requirements protect the network from malicious clients wanting to compromise or disrupt the network. What is needed, therefore, is a way to ensure a level of network security while providing a convenient means for client login in a heterogeneous network.